Articles

Links to important articles

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/housing-lobby-in-5star-mystery/2007/05/24/1179601576302.html

This link provides an inciteful account of the needs and requirements for 5-star housing ratings. The article includes opinions and figures on the effectiveness of the current system, aswell and proposals for a new system, and the economic effects of both.

http://www.generalcontractor.com/construction-projects/tilt-up.asp

This link is a valuable resource which compares and provides good information on both precast and tilt up panel systems.

http://theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21793140-25658,00.html?from=public_rss

This link explains the recent decision to spend $60million to makeover part of St. Kilda's seafront. This is to become the new site for a venue to be opened up by world famous music team "Ministry of Sound." The currently delapidated site will be developed by a team led by St Kilda architect Carlo Catani.

LINKS

Links that will benfefit ya'll

www.onesteel.com.

This site is excellent for anything to do with structural steel, pipes, mesh, aluminium products, etc. I have found it most valuable for sizes and information on Universal Beams and Columns.

www.chhwoodlogic.com.au

This site is good for anything to do with engineered timber products.

www.precastpanels.com.au

APPS (Australian Precast Panel Systems) is an industry leader when it comes to the supply and information on Precast concrete panels. This site is very informative.

www.uniqueconcrete.com.au/concrete_tilt_up_panels.htm

This site has excellent photo galleries that show a well documented construction process for tilt up panel systems, it is a very valuable resource.

www.bluescopesteel.com.au

Contains very good information on cladding and steel decking system, of particular note is the technical catalogue and manual available for use with Bondek suspended formwork systems.

www.formwork.com.au

Excellent Australian resource for formwork information.

Complete model, focus= connection between portal frame wall cladding and frame system.

Steel Fabrication

Steel Manufacturers visit; Geelong Fabrications, 1-19 Madden St. North Shore.

Where it all happens; the sketching and consultation room. This is where sketches and client consultations occur. The structural engineer spends time in here during the initial concept stages of the project. During our visit, work was being carried out on bridge ends for part of the Mitcham/Frankston Freeway project. These bridge ends were 33m High and made entirely out of steel.





The main workshop, where all welding and steel product fabrication occurs. The workshop was set up into four areas, two where singal shape and member fabrication occurred, storage and a huge fabricaton area for the entire project.








This is where basic shapes are welded. These shapes, eg. in this case, he was welding a simple square, are used to fit into the bigger project. These shapes are welded to perfection, in accordance with engineer's specifications. All the details and specifications for these shapes are provided by detailed shop drawings. Upon completion, these shapes are crane lifted over to the major project and then welded into place.





This is where basic steel members are manufactured, as you can see from this picture, in this case C-section steel beams are being produced. Once again members are manufactured according to shop drawing specifications.

This was the major project (bridge end

), being worked on while we were there. This bridge end was one of four and took many worker

s to complete. The bridge end pictured here was still being pieced together. 4-way lasers are used to correctly cut and piece together all elements perfectly.






Here is a CAD produced sketch of the final product. Due to client confidentiality, we were unable to photocopy any shop drawing, however we did view many, the file for this project was enormous.















Bridge end being painted

Portal Frame "close ups"

ROOF BRACING EXAMPLE

STANCHION TO PANEL CONNECTION

APEX JOINT

STORMWATER OFFSET

Tilt Slab site visit, Geelong Road, Geelong West

This site was visited after the floor slab had been laid and the tilt up panels had been mostly casted. The site was a private development by a local firm and it was the construction of a 4 storey office building.

This is a picture of the site in general, note the
concrete slab and the casted panels in the
background. We were lucky enough to be
allowed onto the site, where we could see
the crane in operation.
In the time that we were there, the crane
wasn't doing much as it was the worker's
lunchbreak.






Here is an example of one of the stack casting areas. After speaking to the site foreman, we learnt that during the puring of these slabs, only one set of formwork was used. This is a very efficient way of operating, The tilt panels were cast with lifting point as they are required to be lifted around the site. These panels and the other ones on site at the time were for the bottom level of the project. Further stack casting was to occur with pre-cast panels manufactured offsite to make up the walls and suspended slabs for above levels. The reason for a mixture of the two construction methods was to save money.


This was a good example of site storage. It was also where we were able to see the temporary struts used in the erection of the panels. Some of the struts were telescopic, making them the obvious choice on site, due to their versability.

Pre Cast Panel Transport

Once Casted, the panels are transported to site. Transport is not too complicated. Panels are crane lifted onto trucks. These trucks have specially angled racks, as you can see in images below. It is also obvious that chain tie downs are used to hold the panels to the trucks, these tie downs must be strong, as once travelling, the panel encounters the dynamic lateral load of wind.

Visit To "COEN Pre-cast panels" in Moolap

COEN Pre Cast panels in Moolap was kind enough to let us have a look around their factory and take a few photos of the casting process. After shop drawing production and the consultation, a final panel design is decided upon. It is now time to begin the casting. A casting bed is prepared, by washing, as you can see in the picture to the left. This removes any aggregate or dust from previous casts.





Next, The cast is boxed up, using LVL beams as formwork. Over longer spans, LVLs are preferred as there are less defects in an LVL beam than in a regular piece of timber. The LVL's are purchased in packs and are often reu-sed many times. In the case of the cast we were looking at, 100 panels were to be produced to the same specifications, therefore the LVLs were to be re-used 100 times.





After the formwork, reinforcement is put in place. In this case the Reinforcement was F102 fabric. This is reasonably standard in these panels. The reinforcement sat on bar chairs 75 mm high. This meant they were right in the centre of the 150mm panel, providing it even with stress support throughout. There is only one more detail to add before pouring.






This detail is the panel's lifting point. This shows the back of the point which will be cast into the panel. Note the extra bars of reinforcement around the point. This lifting point is capable of supporting 9tonnes of concrete panel. This panel weighs 10 tonnes, so the lifting is carried out using 2 points. This distributes the load. Extra bars of reinforcement are attached to the mesh using tie wire. Ensuring the correct assembly of the lifting points is perhaps the most crucial part of the casting process and is often overseen by the factory's manager or structural engineer.


left is a picture of the end of one of the panels, note the threaded dowells and also the lifting points. Once the panels reach practical completion, they are placed in racks, as seen in the following photo. Once in these racks, the panels are allowed 24 hours curing time before they are suitable for construction. The site surveyor from the project will come out to the factory and inspect the panels, with regards to lifting points, reinforcement, and general size and colour before approving them to be transported to site. My next blog entry will include transport details.

Site visit, VICROADS Geelong CBD.

VICROADS GEELONG CBD. Pictured is a machine
that drill and then fills very large holes with concrete
these then act as pier for strip footing to span over
as we found out from the Site Foreman. Unfortunately
my camera ran out of batteries \so this was the only
pic. I could get.

Downpipe section

Downpipe and Spreader Section

QUICKSILVER EXTERNAL WALL

TO ROOF CONNECTION DETAIL

PORTAL FRAME SECTION 2

"THE OTHER WAY"

PORTAL FRAME SECTION

Welcome To Jurey's Blog

G'day G'day, this is my blog. Enjoy yourself, leave comments and hopefully you can learn something.


For the first instalment of this Blog, I visited a construction site in Glen Waverley, East of Melbourne.

Picture 1.

The project was a retail showroom, and was being built for car company; Toyota. The aim of the project was obviously to provide the client with a space in which they can best display, store and sell their product. The construction processes of the project invloved mainly concrete tilt construction, and steel framing with glass walls on the south face. The project is located on the corner of Waverley and Springvale Roads in Glen Waverley. At it's present stage, as of the 3/3/07, my predictions are that the project is almost 3/4 of the way to completion. Wide open areas, with long spanning ceilings and lots of glass, provide the company with a building that is perfect for the functionality requirements. The building's main side, which is the glass, faces south.

Photo 2. Of particular interest was the use of glass, It is well documented in this picture. Glass made up the south side of the building, which was it's main entrance and also main exposure point from the surrounding. The glass was quite thick and joined with aluminium.















photo 3.
One Exemplary detail of the building in my opinion was the way the concrete tilt walls, served more than just a structural purpose, they were also quite aethetically appealling, breaking lines and irregular window positioning were two features of this. Lintels in place above the roller door are highlighted effectively rather than hidden.


The architect and builders involved in the project were both unknown.

Brenton Jurey 600166726